DC waiting for JL reactions before planning Flashpoint

[héad.casé]

Despite performing well at the box office, Warner Bros. has not been entirely satisfied with their slate of DC Comics-based movies. Movies like Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice didn't quite match their expectations and were thrashed by critics.

With Justice League on the horizon, studio executives might be adopting a 'wait and see' approach for solo movies featuring the team's members, according to Variety reporter Justin Kroll.


While discussing the tracking and early reactions for Justice League on the Meet the Movie Press podcast with Jeff Sneider and Simon Thompson, Kroll said that Warner Bros. is waiting to move forward on movies like Flashpoint until they know how Zack Snyder's latest film is received.

"A little insider tidbit, so I've been tracking various movies in this world, director-wise, specifically Flashpoint," said Kroll. "I've heard they've slowed that search down to see how this film does because I don't know if they're giving everyone their own movie now. Aquaman is already shot."

When asked about a potential Cyborg movie not having a director, Kroll responded "Well obviously that's not happening anytime soon. Neither is Man of Steel 2."

"But I've heard that- I keep asking and they're like, let's see how this film does before we go forward on those types of movies," Kroll added.


Of course, this does not mean that Warner Bros. is not moving forward with any plans for their vast property of DC Comics characters, just that the original plan of building a Justice League-centric shared universe might see some changes.

There are already at least 17 movies in certain stages of development at Warner Bros., with Aquaman set to come out in 2018 and plans for Wonder Woman 2 and Shazam! in 2019, followed by Suicide Squad 2 at some point.

But for projects like Gotham City Sirens, the Joker origin movie, Justice League Dark, and the recently announced Deathstroke, there's no telling when those productions will actually move forward.

And after changing plans to make two Justice League films with director Zack Snyder, the future of that team of characters is even more questionable.

Warner Bros. will likely have a box office hit with Justice League, but will it match their expectations? And how will the film be perceived among fans?

We'll find out when the film opens in theaters on November 17.

comicbook.com/dc/2017/10/29/justice-league-flashpoint-movie-in-limbo/

[Kevin Hamilton]

Flashpoint this early is dumb.

Then again Death/Return of Superman was also dumb this early.

[Deleted]

Translation: If people like Justice League, Flashpoint will stay the course. If they don't, we're using it to retcon the universe.

[BorneAgain]

So Warner Bros is basically using cosmic event stories to retcon their own bad story mistakes in spite of the likely confusion of the mass audience?











My god, they really are trying to be faithful to DC Comics.

[xCompackx]

I guess projects like these do require some sort of preliminary work and all, but to have 17 movies in the pipeline when you're still unsure how the big team-up movie's going to play out seems like a fairly solid indicator WB doesn't know what the hell they're doing.

[Deleted]

A studio waiting to see how a film does before making final decisions about spin-offs and sequels?

What a scoop!

[Legion]

All of the money, none of the work!

That really is DCeU motto, isnt it?

[Joe Neglia]

Oct 31, 2017 17:26:05 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

A studio waiting to see how a film does before making final decisions about spin-offs and sequels?

What a scoop!

In this day and age of entire franchises or series being planned out and even announced before the first one even hits screens...it kinda is. It shows the studios are starting to get leery of that particular trend. Between all of the "cinematic universes" and YA series, there've been more bombs, cancellations and the like than there have been hits. Outside of Wonder Woman, the DC stuff has been a continuing disaster on multiple levels, The Mummy tanked, Dark Tower tanked even harder and most of the YA series aren't making it past the first movie. Then there's the whole Sony/Spider-Man thing blowing up in their face once already and now they're thinking of trying it again. They all want to be the next MCU/Harry Potter/Transformers, but they're starting to realize that it's not going to happen.

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2017 19:12:49 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

Oct 31, 2017 17:26:05 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

A studio waiting to see how a film does before making final decisions about spin-offs and sequels?

What a scoop!

In this day and age of entire franchises or series being planned out and even announced before the first one even hits screens...it kinda is. It shows the studios are starting to get leery of that particular trend. Between all of the "cinematic universes" and YA series, there've been more bombs, cancellations and the like than there have been hits. Outside of Wonder Woman, the DC stuff has been a continuing disaster on multiple levels, The Mummy tanked, Dark Tower tanked even harder and most of the YA series aren't making it past the first movie. Then there's the whole Sony/Spider-Man thing blowing up in their face once already and now they're thinking of trying it again. They all want to be the next MCU/Harry Potter/Transformers, but they're starting to realize that it's not going to happen.

I don't disagree that studios are becoming more leery, but if the story is pretty true of any franchise. It's not really "news" so much as it is simple logic to me.

A film underperforms or bombs - plans for sequels/spin-offs get radically changed. Its just one of those vague "dirt sheetz" type news stories for me. It gives no real details other than "well, if this film doesn't do well then they'll scale back the next few and rethink things," which is kinda like, "Yeah, of COURSE that's what they'll do." That's not news - that just simple business.

Its not a recent development as far as I can tell - there have always been more misfires/false starts then actual successful franchises. The ones that work for 10 films are the outliers. I mean, ten years ago they tried to get that Eragon franchise going, 5 years ago it was the Mortal Instruments. There are probably countless others dating back to the early 2000's at least.

[Deleted]

I really don't get why they keep pushing Flashpoint so much in general. It's a not particularly good story that's barely even a crossover because the actual core of it is entirely about Barry Allen and it's not like it was a fan favorite or anything. Plus it led into the New 52 which even DC is basically crapping on these days.

Not to mention that... It just really isn't a very marketable idea on a grand scale. In comics, sure, since you can do all kinds of tie-in issues with weird shake-ups (though doing this right before rebooting instead of letting all their series go for some proper resolutions beforehand was idiotic), but that's not going to fly in terms of movies, plus it's a very uniquely comic book idea on the face of it anyway.

[BorneAgain]

Oct 31, 2017 19:44:58 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

I really don't get why they keep pushing Flashpoint so much in general. It's a not particularly good story that's barely even a crossover because the actual core of it is entirely about Barry Allen and it's not like it was a fan favorite or anything. Plus it led into the New 52 which even DC is basically crapping on these days.

Not to mention that... It just really isn't a very marketable idea on a grand scale. In comics, sure, since you can do all kinds of tie-in issues with weird shake-ups (though doing this right before rebooting instead of letting all their series go for some proper resolutions beforehand was idiotic), but that's not going to fly in terms of movies, plus it's a very uniquely comic book idea on the face of it anyway.

Moreover a lot of the story's emotional punches rely on an audience being familiar with various DC elements they haven't even gotten close to introducing yet (Reverse Flash, Atlanteans, the Marvel Family, Speedforce)

I think only Blackest Night, Brightest Day would be more foolhardy in trying to adapt this early.

[Joe Neglia]

You're thinking too literally in how they're going to do Flashpoint. None of the movies from any of the studios that were based on big "event" comics were even remotely like their comic counterparts outside of the most basic elements of the concept. Civil War, Age of Ultron, Days of Future Past, (Old Man) Logan...At most, you're going to get Flash trapped in dark alternate reality where it turns out he caused it. That's the most we can really expect out of it tying into the comics, and that's being generous on the "he caused it" part. All the other elements are going to be completely different.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Flash Point could have been f***ing big if they had a proper cinematic universe

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Oct 31, 2017 20:15:36 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

You're thinking too literally in how they're going to do Flashpoint. None of the movies from any of the studios that were based on big "event" comics were even remotely like their comic counterparts outside of the most basic elements of the concept. Civil War, Age of Ultron, Days of Future Past, (Old Man) Logan...At most, you're going to get Flash trapped in dark alternate reality where it turns out he caused it. That's the most we can really expect out of it tying into the comics, and that's being generous on the "he caused it" part. All the other elements are going to be completely different.

Hell, it's going to be hard to get someone that can match the charisma of Eobard Thawne on screen

[riseofsetian1981]

As long as we get Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Batman and actually see Lauren Cohan perform as The Joker I will be a happy fan.

[Raw is Doodie101]

Oct 31, 2017 17:26:05 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

A studio waiting to see how a film does before making final decisions about spin-offs and sequels?

What a scoop!

Yeah, I’m not sure how this is a big story.

[TWERKIN' MAGGLE]

Nov 1, 2017 7:58:38 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

Lauren Cohan perform as The Joker I will be a happy fan.

Yeah, they'll conveniently not do this part.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Nov 1, 2017 9:52:03 GMT -5 TWERKIN' MAGGLE said:

Nov 1, 2017 7:58:38 GMT -5 riseofsetian1981 said:

Lauren Cohan perform as The Joker I will be a happy fan.

Yeah, they'll conveniently not do this part.

Yeah, I doubt they are doing that. You're probably going to get a reference to Martha being The Joker but I doubt she will be on screen

[cabbageboy]

It's so bizarre to try big sweeping storylines like Flashpoint when there hasn't even been an actual Flash movie yet. The dilemma is that The Flash is already a TV show but the film continuity will likely be something else (whereas Marvel's TV fits into the films). Good grief, just watching the DC TV shows is a baffling experience if you're just watching on Netflix. My wife and I have been watching all of Arrow, but in a vacuum certain things make NO sense if you aren't also watching Flash (and to some degree Legends of Tomorrow). It wasn't so bad in the earlier seasons, but by season 5 we've gotten random alien kidnappings and Diggle's daughter now being his son and it's really baffling. We'll probably start The Flash next so hopefully it explains some of these things.

Speaking of which, where is Green Arrow in the DC film universe?

[héad.casé]

Nov 1, 2017 10:14:32 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

It's so bizarre to try big sweeping storylines like Flashpoint when there hasn't even been an actual Flash movie yet. The dilemma is that The Flash is already a TV show but the film continuity will likely be something else (whereas Marvel's TV fits into the films). Good grief, just watching the DC TV shows is a baffling experience if you're just watching on Netflix. My wife and I have been watching all of Arrow, but in a vacuum certain things make NO sense if you aren't also watching Flash (and to some degree Legends of Tomorrow). It wasn't so bad in the earlier seasons, but by season 5 we've gotten random alien kidnappings and Diggle's daughter now being his son and it's really baffling. We'll probably start The Flash next so hopefully it explains some of these things.

Speaking of which, where is Green Arrow in the DC film universe?

Don’t worry, the Flash show does explain why Diggle’s daughter is now his son. And the alien kidnapping from Season 5 was a three show crossover starting with the Flash and ending with Legends of Tomorrow. Of course if you don’t follow those shows I can see how it would be confusing.